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Child victims of violence  For children, living with domestic violence requires negotiating, making sense of, and managing a number of complex and overlapping issues: the behavior of the abuser; the responses of, and impacts on, their mother and siblings; danger and risk to themselves; their emotions; and kin and friendship relations. Mullender, Hague, Imam, Kelly, Malos and Regan (2002, p.91)

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Research on DV in family law proceedings  Alleged violence in 79% of adjudicated cases in FCA (AIFS 2007)  Violence an issue in 58% of 40 randomly selected child-related judgments (Kaspiew 2005)  Violence an issue at final hearing in 128 contact cases at Adelaide registry between (Shea Hart 2004)  Physical violence an issue in 67% of 91 child related judgments. At least one allegation accepted by FCA in over 50% of these cases (FCA 2003)

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Examples of types of violence found to have occurred ‘stalked’ ‘harassed’ ‘foul language’ ‘threat to kill’ ‘dictatorial’ ‘head- butted’ ‘pulled from the car’ ‘broke [wife’s] ribs’ ‘poured lighter fluid on the wife and threatened to set it on fire’ ‘threatening and aggressive demeanor’ ‘convicted of assault’ ‘ruled the household with an iron fist’ ‘punching a hole through the door’ ‘threatening and intimidatory manner’ ‘obsessive about the wife and the children mixing with other people’ ‘wife was required to be extremely frugal with the housekeeping money’

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Violence mutualised ‘extreme conflict’ ‘bitter conflict’ ‘bitter feud’ ‘fiery marriage’ ‘turbulent relationship’ ‘state of war between the parties’ ‘animosity between the parties’ ‘enmity between the parties’ ‘active denigration by both parents’ ‘hostility between the parties’